Perspective: Student Life vs. Social Media

By Deepesh Tiwari

Social media is growing an importance in people’s daily routine. According to a survey by Global Social Media research in August 2020, 3.96 billion people in the world are using social media in 2020. More than 85 percent of the total youth population, ages 15-29 years old, are using one or multiple social media platforms across the globe. The average time spent on social media has also risen to approximately 2 hours and 30 minutes. This popularity of social media has risen because social media platforms are becoming a hub of disorganized information and are presented in such a way that is generally not applicable in real life which fascinates the youth. Social media represents mainly the online platforms which can either connect two or more persons or give facility to transmit messages of one person/society to other groups of persons/societies. 

Facebook and Instagram are the most popular examples. It even includes platforms like YouTube and WhatsApp. In the educated community, LinkedIn is also gaining popularity these days. It is very useful for leaders, teachers, team leaders and other such persons to communicate their thoughts to a group of people or for family members who are far away and unable to meet regularly. 

Most people among all age groups join these platforms to connect with either friends and family members or to join societies of their interests. However, most of the socially active people, especially youth, get addicted to it. According to a report by Market and Markets, the global market size of social media is expected to grow from USD $3.6 billion in 2020 to $15.6 billion by 2025 (USD) at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 34.1 percent. Among all the social media markets, Facebook has the largest share of revenue with around 68.72 percent and largest number of users.

With the decrease in size of family, busy lifestyles, and preference to lead an undistracted life, people have started living a lone life. And to overcome their loneliness and stress, they are fascinated with virtual societies and  connections. Most of the youth join social media platforms just to get connected with friends and family members whom they cannot physically meet. A few of them also come to these platforms to make a community with similar thoughts like one for designers, one for programmers, and many others. They can share their personal random experiences and knowledge with others. Most of the students get excited to gain knowledge and understand new concepts. This excitement makes them subscribe to multiple pages without any particular aim. 

While checking on these social platforms, oftentimes people adhere to subscribing to one or two entertainment pages just for a little fun, but this turns harmful for the students after some time because the velocity of posts on entertainment page is much higher than combined number of posts of all the information providing pages that were subscribed. Slowly, students start giving less attention to the information and more on entertaining posts. This sometimes makes them addicted to social media, and social media, along with the video games and movies in certain cases, replaces the outdoor games and activities. Some students get entangled in the competition to raise more and more followers as compared to their friends on platforms like Instagram. This diverts their focus from basic education to worthless activities like making videos and posts, and sometimes result in dropping out from their studies.

Most of us join social media for the good cause of connecting with family, friends, and people with similar visions. However, we get diverted from our aim either for fun or to gain popularity. So, one has to keep a noble reason for joining any social media in mind while using it. Initially, it is wise to make connections only to known friends and family. Then, one can plug into new connections after understanding the platform. We should join all the communities that are helpful in the direction of our actual goal. At the same time, we can join a few other societies as well to explore new areas, but slowly and not all in one day. We should avoid entertainment pages and posts and should not use these platforms for fun as it ultimately tends to kill a lot of time that could have been used purposefully in other areas of life. Instead of spending time on social media platforms for unnecessary activities, one should play outdoor games and be involved in physical activities to have fun. This can make a balance between the physical activities and mental activities that includes using any electronic device to visit social media platforms. 

This balance is necessary for fitness and proper brain functions. These days, most of the study material is available online with an easy approach, so most of us prefer to study using these electronic devices only. So, if we start using them for the purpose of our entertainment, then the synchronization and our brain functions will definitely be affected. These effects can be observed in the long run. To remain focused on our aim, we can also select social media platforms, like LinkedIn, which have posts on the latest technologies and trends, and knowledge on various technological advances. Similarly, we should choose only one of the platforms that can fulfil all our requirements, can provide the media for all possible types of messages that one may need to send or receive depending upon the area of interest, and should keep using that one only. Having a single platform for social activities will help people not to lose focus and spend more time on undesirable activities. These small precautionary measurements will not only save us from getting addicted, but also fulfil the requirements of using social media.

Some students may already be spending more than the suggested time on social media. For students who would like to reduce the usage of social media and save their precious time, there are multiple ways available for them. To illustrate how a student can restrain from undesired long usage of social media, I would like to share my personal experience. I joined Facebook initially to connect with my school friends, and keep our friendship alive even after school days. Then, I came across many social media platforms like YouTube, WhatsApp, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and a few others. But I was mostly using Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and YouTube. I used to kill 5-8 hours of time on all such social media everyday. 

After attending a webinar, I started to work on reducing this usage. At first, I invited my friends who I actually talk to on a regular basis to LinkedIn, who weren't using this platform. I selected LinkedIn because I need to connect with some professors and I need a community that is  working on interesting  projects. Slowly, I decreased the frequency of checking posts on Facebook and Instagram, and completely stopped liking or visiting  random pages and posts. After a few days, I also stopped watching videos on YouTube that are just entertaining, and instead I only watched chess tournament videos for the next few days. In my free time, I started playing chess with my brother to avoid any diversion of my mind towards  entertaining virtual sources. Slowly, I managed to complete all my communications using WhatsApp and LinkedIn only. I generally give, on average, 30 minutes per day to LinkedIn to check all the necessary posts and information.

So, those who actually desire to reduce their social media usage, should initially migrate and focus only on one social media platform, and completely stop using other similar platforms. At first, one should close the notifications to avoid frequent diversions to check the new activities. For one to one or group conversation purposes, a student can select one social media platform like WhatsApp, Telegram, Microsoft Teams, or any other as per convenience. Also one should use YouTube and the selected social media platform, only to receive required knowledge in a systematic way, in order to learn and apply that knowledge to make it useful.

At the initial stage, one must do some outdoor activities or play some games in the awarded free time from checking social media, instead of putting the saved time into studies. It may sound weird to some students, but if we force our brain to do extra work, there are heavy chances of diversion towards some relaxing activities. As per our habitual activity of checking social media apps, we will get diverted in the wrong direction, which is not desirable. To avoid such diversions, one can also try various other activities like reading story books or meditating in silence for some time. One can also try making content in the form of small videos or articles for research, internships, or projects, which can be shared with the selected communities or public, that will help them gain knowledge, viewpoints or experience. This way, you can support your friends as well to divert their attention in a positive way. 

These activities will help to relax the brain, develop better concentration, and will gradually help to change the habit of checking social media apps. When one practices this for about three months and is able to confirm that they have no more attraction towards social media platforms, they can put the saved time into other more important activities like learning a skill or regular studies in the daily routine. In this way, a student can fulfill all their necessities and requirements of using social media in approximately half an hour. Moreover, the student can get a well designed daily routine, with better time management.

A student should also understand the importance of social media, as it provides a variety of information shared by knowledgeable and experienced persons, and can be utilized if it is received in a systematic way. It provides a platform to join or make a community as per the similar thoughts, interests and goals. These communities can prove to be a good driving factor for students at a faster pace by sharing experiences  with others who have already gone through it. So, sometimes, we should spend time on social media as well to build a healthy and motivating community.